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Raja backs Ganguly amid criticism
The former Pak captain felt that Ganguly's bad patch was a normal phenomena, experienced by most past captains in the sub-continent.
Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, facing criticism for continued failure with the bat, was on Saturday given some tips by former Pakistani captain Ramiz Raja to come out of his bad phase, even as former Indian skipper Bishen Singh Bedi questioned the rationale behind the continued faith on Ganguly.
"It seems to everyone that everything Sourav is doing is wrong. His case is not that complicated. All he needs to do is to spend a lot of time at the nets and his problems will disappear," the former Pakistani opener, in Kolkata to watch the second Test between the arch rivals said at the Eden Gardens.
Raja felt that Ganguly's bad patch was a normal phenomena which has been experienced by most captains in the sub-continent in the past.
"I have seen a lot of bad phases myself," said Raja, who faced a similar situation after going through a bad patch as the skipper of his side in the early 1990s.
"I know very well that in a situation like this a major victory can restore confidence for the captain. A good performance for the team can help Sourav regain confidence and get back to form," Raja, member of the Imran Khan led World Cup winning side in 1991-92 said.
About Ganguly's captaincy, Raja said the Indian skipper was doing an excellent job amidst high expectations of the cricket lovers in the country.
Raja's comments came when Ganguly failed to come up with a big score for the third consecutive time in the current series when he was out for only 12. He had an identical score of 12 in the first inning and had scored 21 in the first Test at Mohali.
His failure on Saturday immediately brought criticism from former Indian skipper Bishen Singh Bedi who questioned the justification of keeping faith in Sourav's captaincy.
The former spinner wondered why Ganguly continued to be the captain, "when he is failing to score long innings for quite a long time and also making mistakes as the skipper on the ground".
Incidentally, Ganguly has not scored a century in his last 12 Test appearances. His last century (144) was against Australia at Brisbane in December 2003.
In the 16 innings he played since then, Ganguly has scored a total of only 577 runs with five fifties.
